May 17, 2024 CALLED INTO HIS KINGDOM
1 Thessalonians 2:11-13 “just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of man, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.”
Do we allow ourselves to be exhorted and encouraged in the things of the Lord?If not careful, we are guided by our own preferences and our own understanding. And, we may try to make the word of God fit our viewpoints instead of letting the word of God form our viewpoints and our beliefs. Paul and his co-laborers were exhorting and encouraging believers just as a father would do so to his own children. Whether its through a fellow believer, a teacher of the word of God, and certainly through the Holy Spirit, we are being exhorted and encouraged to walk in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord. We are no longer our own; we have been bought with a price and have been joined to God; now we are to live as unto Him. It is amazing and life-changing to realize that GOD HAS CALLED US INTO HIS OWN KINGDOM AND GLORY! Notice that we are called-not forced into His kingdom; not forced to live in a way that is pleasing to Him-but He is always drawing us to Himself. As in the case of the believers that Paul was writing to, let us also receive God’s word NOT as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God. When we accept the word as the word of God, it performs its work in us! Yes. We are to obey His word and we are to study His word, but it is His word that performs its work in us-it is a miracle, a work of the Holy Spirit. We can and should cooperate with the work of God in us, but it is God who produces in us what He wants to produce. Just think about it-God Himself calls us into His own kingdom and glory. Wow! Because of who He is and because of what He has done in restoring us to Himself, WE CAN walk in a manner pleasing to Him; we have the power to say no to sin.
2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
Blessings, Buddy
1 Thessalonians 2:11-13 “just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children, so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. And for this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God’s message, you accepted it not as the word of man, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.”
Do we allow ourselves to be exhorted and encouraged in the things of the Lord?If not careful, we are guided by our own preferences and our own understanding. And, we may try to make the word of God fit our viewpoints instead of letting the word of God form our viewpoints and our beliefs. Paul and his co-laborers were exhorting and encouraging believers just as a father would do so to his own children. Whether its through a fellow believer, a teacher of the word of God, and certainly through the Holy Spirit, we are being exhorted and encouraged to walk in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord. We are no longer our own; we have been bought with a price and have been joined to God; now we are to live as unto Him. It is amazing and life-changing to realize that GOD HAS CALLED US INTO HIS OWN KINGDOM AND GLORY! Notice that we are called-not forced into His kingdom; not forced to live in a way that is pleasing to Him-but He is always drawing us to Himself. As in the case of the believers that Paul was writing to, let us also receive God’s word NOT as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God. When we accept the word as the word of God, it performs its work in us! Yes. We are to obey His word and we are to study His word, but it is His word that performs its work in us-it is a miracle, a work of the Holy Spirit. We can and should cooperate with the work of God in us, but it is God who produces in us what He wants to produce. Just think about it-God Himself calls us into His own kingdom and glory. Wow! Because of who He is and because of what He has done in restoring us to Himself, WE CAN walk in a manner pleasing to Him; we have the power to say no to sin.
2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
Blessings, Buddy
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